


Can't be drawn (with a straight line)

by icountcards



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Misunderstandings, kind of a tag for ep3x19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 00:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18712864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icountcards/pseuds/icountcards
Summary: Desi reflects on her new team. Bozer jumps to conclusions.





	Can't be drawn (with a straight line)

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted from tumblr. 
> 
> Originally written and posted before 3x20 aired, so uh, just ignore the fact that canon decided to directly contradict me right after I put all this effort in.

In hindsight, Desi should probably be a little alarmed at how quickly Jack’s merry band of misfits has grown on her, for all her certainty this was going to be a miserable gig.

It goes like this: get a new assignment. Get your hopes up. Get attached. Get one more grave to leave flowers on. Swear you won’t let it happen again. Rinse and repeat.

She’s spent the morning camped out in the lab with Bozer, sort of working on her report and mostly trying to subtly size up how he’s doing after two brushes with death in quick succession. Guilt sits like molten glass in the pit of her stomach at having been lured away from the Black Site, at having been halfway across the world with Oversight’s car rigged to explode, at having put off getting in touch with the team, at the fact that not even the Phoenix Foundation headquarters are safe now.

At least, she reflects as she half-listens to whatever idea Bozer is using her as a sounding board for, maybe this time she’s let herself get attached to a crew with a pretty remarkable talent for staying alive.

She’s thought that before.

It takes her a moment to realize Bozer’s paused in his explanation of whatever he’s showing her and is looking at her expectantly. Great. She’s tuned out a question.

She glances at what he’s holding and hedges her bets that he’s asking her opinion on it. “Pretty impressive,” she says with a nod to the face he’s working on.

He sighs even as he nods and straightens up a little at the compliment, so she’s definitely guessed wrong. “Man, you didn’t hear a thing I just said, did you?”

She shakes her head the tiniest bit and pulls her wandering attention back in. “Got a lot on my mind.” She leans forward, elbows on the table, and tilts her laptop screen down. “You have my undivided attention now.”

Bozer waves dismissively with the hand he’s not using to touch up the eyebrows on his creation. “Hey, I get it, we all got a lot to think about these days. Nah, I was just saying—you and Mac?” He pauses, and she raises her eyebrows, silently waiting for him to finish the thought. “You two seem to be getting along pretty well, huh?”

There’s something that’s a touch too calculated-casual in his tone that gives her pause, makes her question what he’s actually asking. She can’t exactly blame him for being surprised she’s taking a liking to the team—it’s come as a surprise to her too. She shrugs, mouth twisting thoughtfully as she considers the not-really-a-question he’s posed. “He’s alright,” she says eventually. “I may have underestimated him.” She leans in slightly and drops her voice to a conspiratorial undertone. “Between you and me? I thought Jack must have been making up half the stories he told me about Mac.”

Bozer huffs a laugh at that, and Desi watches for a moment to see if the movement irritates his still-healing shoulder, but he seems fine, if a little stiff. “Man, if I hadn’t known him for years, I’d think he was made up too,” he agrees. “Good thing first impressions don’t always stick, yeah?”

“Good thing,” she echoes. “He’s not so bad.” Her mouth twitches up into the tiniest of smiles. “Don’t tell him I said that.”

Bozer grins widely at that. “Your secret is safe with me,” he says. “If he thinks you’re impressed, he might stop trying, am I right?”

She smiles for real at that. “Hey, I did tell him that crane was pretty impressive,” she says. In all honesty, she’s been impressed since at least the burning warehouse, but that doesn’t need to be public knowledge. She grins. “I have a reputation to keep up, you know.”

“Hey, it’s cool, I get it, gotta play it cool,” he says, fidgeting with his tools instead of working, and Desi once again gets the impression there’s something he’s trying to say without saying. “Just don’t play it too cool,” he adds, “because I gotta tell you, man, I love Mac, but he’s not exactly the best in the initiative department, you know?”

Desi squints at him for a moment as she tries and fails to parse what he’s saying, but Bozer looks just awkward enough about whatever it is that if she gives him a moment he’ll keep babbling and hopefully start making some sense.

True to form, Bozer doesn’t let the awkward silence stand for long. “Don’t think he listened when I told him blowing things up isn’t a love language anyone else speaks,” he says, and—oh. That’s where this tangent was going.

She laughs a little, both at the joke and the implication. “Wait, you thought—me and Mac?” She gestures to herself and raises an eyebrow. “I mean, nothing against him, but,” she pauses, mouth curling up in amusement, “not exactly my type.”

Bozer looks unperturbed, if a little surprised, by the newly acquired knowledge that he’s read their dynamic totally wrong. “Hey, that’s cool, totally should’ve guessed you’d be more about the strong silent types,” he says, still not quite hitting the mark for casual, presumably trying to calculate what is her type. “Cause man, Mac really does not have an off switch for the science talk.” He sighs and looks down at his work. “Sometimes you just wanna make toast without getting the pitch for a toaster made from a remote control car and a fishtank, right?”

Desi laughs, because that’s definitely too specific not to be based on a true story. “Definitely would drive me up the wall,” she agrees.

She weighs her next words carefully, balances them on the tip of her tongue and hopes they fall on the right side of casually unconcerned with the reaction. “Besides, Mac’s definitely too male for my taste.” She follows it with a smirk that she doesn’t feel, ignoring the way her heart knocks against her ribcage like mortar fire as she speaks.

Bozer opens his mouth to reply and immediately snaps it back shut without saying anything. She can see the gears turning in his head as he processes what she’s said– _processing,_ a distant part of her mind contributes in Sparky’s voice–and it’s an interminably long moment before he opens his mouth again and words come out. “Well, I read that wrong.” He chuckles weakly at his own failure.

“You wouldn’t be the first to assume,” she says, shrugging one shoulder and probably projecting nonchalance a little too hard.

“Aw, man, you know what they say about assuming,” he says, and he actually kind of looks disappointed in himself for having done so. “Hey, this isn’t one of those ‘everyone knows before Bozer’ things, is it? ‘Cause I’m feeling kind of out of the loop.”

She smiles a little more genuinely at that, heartbeat settling down in her chest. “You… actually might be the only one in the loop,” she says.

Bozer’s eyes widen for a second. “Oh. Is it a secret, then? 'Cause if it is, it’s safe with me.” He mimes zipping his lips. “They didn’t send me to spy school for nothing.”

She laughs, even as gratitude swells in her chest at the offer. “Not a secret,” she says after a moment. “You don’t have to lie for me.” She’s had plenty of time to get tired of not asking and not telling. “Not sure how much you picked up in spy school anyway if you thought I was into Mac,” she adds with a grin.

Bozer groans. “Yeah, I get it, I was way off base on that one,” he says.

She rolls her eyes fondly. “As long as you haven’t given Mac the same pep talk you tried to give me,” she says.

“Nope.” He shakes his head, looking forlorn. “Aw, you’re not going to tell him about that, are you? I feel dumb enough with one of you making fun of me for it.”

She grins widely, too many teeth to be strictly friendly. “Let me feed Sparky another riddle and I’ll think about it.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” he says, glancing at Sparky, currently unplugged to prevent Desi from inflicting riddles on him.

He’s spared any further ribbing on the matter when the door swings open and they both glance up to see Mac hovering in the doorway. “Matty needs us in the war room,” he informs them.

“Speak of the devil,” Desi says, tilting her head toward Mac as she stands.

“You guys were talking about me?” Mac asks, raising his eyebrows.

She glances back at Bozer, who still looks a little put out, and takes pity on him, turning to Mac with a smirk. “That’s classified.”


End file.
